some of the 2,000 troops would set up checkpoints as well as tents to handle a potential influx of americans. likely fleeing a russian invasion if it happens. there is an estimated 30,000 americans in ukraine, despite warnings from the state department and the president to get out, to leave immediately, so they are setting up tents and what may be checkpoints as well, but the forces themselves will not enter ukraine. they ll stay on the polish side. russia continues to strengthen to the north of ukraine. belarus, moved in s-400 surface to air missile systems. the missiles are used mainly to shoot down jets. despite the international diplomacy, it has not led to a slowdown in the russian build-up. the peace and stability of the european continent are treasured by us, and we believe we will do whatever we can in our power to preserve it. in ukraine, many say they are
they don t have surface to air missile systems. they can t shoot down jets or russian short range ballistic missiles that are deployed on the border. they don t have the forces. remember, martha, president putin never believes that ukraine is a separate country. he thinks ukraine and russia are one in the same. in 1991, when nato expanded to hungary, poland, the people in the west celebrated that. people in moscow feared that. they saw nato coming closer. putin doesn t want to see missiles that can his moscow. he doesn t want any troops or nato forces here in the ukraine. that is why this is happening. he s never wanted this. he referred to as one people a single whole referring to russia and ukraine. thanks, lucas, reporting on the ground in kiev tonight. let s bring in michael mccaul, the top republican on the foreign affairs committee.
are cruise missiles that have been fired at targets in and around kyiv. we re right in the center of the ukrainian capital. we haven t seen anything in this immediate vicinity. it s a historic area. there s some beautiful architecture here. the foreign ministry is just a couple of hundred yards away from where i m standing right now. it s really the official center of the city. but what we are seeing and what the indications are is that those explosions for the most part that we ve been hearing seem to be located near the airport, boryspil airport, which is the main international airport in the city. it s to the east over there about 20 miles away. and it s there where we re told command and control centers, surface-to-air missile systems, things like that may have been targeted by these multiple cruise missile attacks. and within the past few minutes we ve seen the direction of the
potentially on russian surface-to-air missile systems. they have a lot of them in the ukraine now. one of them is the buck missile launcher that shot down a malaysian airline. in addition, there could be an interaction between russian aircraft and u.s. or nato aircraft. putin has come out today saying that would be an act of war, so this is a tough situation. as much as we want to put air cover over the humanitarian corridor, it s a very difficult decision for politicians and with the president. if it leads to world war iii, we probably can t do it. admiral foggo, i want to show you this map and give you an idea where the positioning where it s determined the positioning is as now, where russian forces seem to be. and the conventional wisdom is it is trying to surround kyiv. among the most vulnerable of areas for ukraine is along its port cities.
north as well. why they would be taking out these air defenses, obviously the first reason would be to make sure that russia has air superiority, that ukraine can t launch surface-to-air missiles against russian planes that may soon come in the sky and also can t launch air assaults on ground forces perhaps in donbas, which is several hundred miles away and which vladimir putin the russian president says is the focus of his special military operation as he calls it. it s not being called that by ukrainian officials. they re calling this the start of a full-scale invasion. and there are concerns this morning as the sun starts to rise and the street lights have just gone off here in the ukrainian capital, there are concerns this is just the start of something much, much bigger, a much broader invasion. it s been said by the united states in their intelligence